The Begining

A supernova is the explosion of a star. They are extremely important of understanding our Galaxy. They heat up the interstellar medium, distribute heavy elements through out the Galaxy, and accelerate cosmic rays. what causes this? Lets find out!

Bombs Away

• In the year 1054 Chinese astronomers saw a supernova in the constellation of Taurus.
• The way you can tell a supernova from a white dwarf is that a supernova is rarer and HUGE compared to white dwarf. Today it's known as the Crab Nebula.
• Some supernovae shatter completely, leaving behind only the wispy gases behind.
• Did you know that a tiny drop of a neutron star weighs a billion tons on earth?
• A hypernova is 100 times more powerful than a supernova.
• The sun collapse of a supernova causes a neutron star to spin very rapidly and give off a beam of x-ray radiation.  Like the beam from a light house, we can detect the x-rays as a pulse.  So a rotating neutron star is called a pulsar.    

HyperNova

Crab Nebula

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Crab_Nebula.jpg

This is the crab nebula. Its the most popular supernova and was found in 1054 in the constellation Taurus (Bombs away paragraph 1)

 Crab Supernova

Exploding Supernova

Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9f/CygnusLoopSmall.jpg/220px-CygnusLoopSmall.jpg

Super Big Bang

• " Super novas are stars that burst into brilliance due to sudden, violent changes are called cataclysmic variables.They include novas and supernovas. a nova occurs when a white dwarf star in a binary star system pulls hydrogen gas of its companion. The gas builds up until there is a nuclear explosion."(Hughes and Kerrod 2006:144)
• A super nova carries lots of nuclear energy,more than the sun is expected to have in its entire lifespan.
• A  supernova can expel up to up to as much as or all of a stars material at a velocity of up to 10% of the speed of light driving a shock wave into the surrounding a interstellar medium.
• Super novas can go up to 90 billion degrees Fahrenheit.
• A supernova's explosion causes a stars outer layers to blast off in space then create a black hole.
• Supernovae are so strong that they can give more energy than the sun can in 1 billion years!
• After a supernova star's core is so compact and its gravity is so strong that the core gets crushed into a tiny point turning the star into a black hole.Some can have more mass than the sun! 

Super Nova explosion